As the weather has been getting warmer, we’ve been seeing more flowers and plants starting to bloom throughout the city. There are a lot of trees on and around campus that grow flowers on them, but they lose their petals just after a few weeks. The trees leave a wonderful scent everywhere you go, and they create the perfect scenery for a nice day out. This month it hasn’t been as hazy, just bright blue skies and beautiful sunny days. It’s during this time that parks begin to attract a lot of visitors who come in to get away from the city life and to view the natural spectacle that only comes by once a year. While in my kung fu class it has become somewhat of a nuisance to have more people walking through the space we normally use for practice, especially with their cameras already out in hand ready to take pictures of everything they see, it has been very enjoyable to finally be able to stop practicing out on the ice and snow and to start wearing lighter clothes again.
I took the time with some classmates to go out for a nice walk through another park that I had never been to before while the flowers were still fresh. I have heard often that the Fragrant Hills Park (Xiangshan Gongyuan 香山公园 ) is one of the best places to visit while everything is still blooming, however I wound up getting sick on the weekend I planned to go and didn’t manage to make it, so we planned another trip to a park that was closer. After splitting a cab four-way, we made it to our destination at Yuyuantan Park (Yuyuantan Gongyuan 玉渊潭公园 ) to celebrate the Cherry Blossom Festival. As soon as we arrived, there was a huge crowd of people walking through the gate into the park. People were almost shoulder to shoulder it was so packed, but the view was absolutely worth it. All of the trees had bright white flowers on them, with a few willow trees thrown into the mix. The scent along with the clear blue sky and white petals strewn about the park really made it a magical environment. In some spots where you can catch some shade, the light passes through and shines on some of these petals, making the ground appear to sparkle.
A major downside though is that, as I mentioned before, everyone has their cameras out, so if you hate getting your photo taken it’s hard to avoid it. I normally allow people to take my photo if they ask, but when people either force me to do it or sneak photos of me, it can really upset me, but maybe I’m just a little bit of a control freak too. So, being in a place where everyone was coming in just to take photos had me a little on edge this day. Shortly after walking in, there was a man gesturing for me to take a photo with him, thinking I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I put my hand up and told him I didn’t want to take any photos for the day, and he just smiled and started to put his arm up around me anyways. I tensed up and yelled at him to knock it off, and then he started to walk away taking photos of me anyways. This was probably the one person in China who I chewed his ear off for doing this, but it was also because I feared that this was the sort of place where if I started allowing too many people to take photos with me, they would start lining up for it like I was part of the attraction (Not to be cynical, but it has happened a few times before).
As we continued on, we spotted a few stands that were selling snacks and souvenirs to celebrate the flowers blooming. A lot of people at this event bought flower crowns to put on top of their heads. Some people would use them as a kind of camouflage for when they took selfies in front of the trees. Another item that was one of my own favorites was the flower pot ice cream treat. Placed in a small pastel-colored pot was a scoop of rich chocolate ice cream covered with chocolate dust and rock candies, topped off with a small flower, some foliage, and a plastic toy shovel. The chocolate dust was a little bitter, to be honest, but it was fun to buy for the novelty of it. The park itself was gorgeous. There were a lot of places to explore, and it was another one of those places that really had that authentic traditional Chinese style feel to it. Some people took the afternoon to go for a picnic there and to lay in the grass with the flower petals.
As we continued on, we spotted a few stands that were selling snacks and souvenirs to celebrate the flowers blooming. A lot of people at this event bought flower crowns to put on top of their heads. Some people would use them as a kind of camouflage for when they took selfies in front of the trees. Another item that was one of my own favorites was the flower pot ice cream treat. Placed in a small pastel-colored pot was a scoop of rich chocolate ice cream covered with chocolate dust and rock candies, topped off with a small flower, some foliage, and a plastic toy shovel. The chocolate dust was a little bitter, to be honest, but it was fun to buy for the novelty of it. The park itself was gorgeous. There were a lot of places to explore, and it was another one of those places that really had that authentic traditional Chinese style feel to it. Some people took the afternoon to go for a picnic there and to lay in the grass with the flower petals.
At the end of the day, we walked back towards the entrance on a narrow strip of land surrounded by two small lakes in the middle of the park. The willow trees drooped over the path and in the distance you could see several folk cruising through the water on motor boats. Right before we left we caught a glimpse of a street performer dancing off beat and lip-syncing to a slow paced Chinese song. It was the kind of panhandling that I had seen before in Nanjing but this one kind of stood out. Later that evening after I left the park, I showed up to my martial arts class an hour too early and decided to explore some of the quieter areas surrounding Wangfujing. I discovered a small stand that I passed by nearly everyday these past few months that sold tasty lunch items and sour plum juice. It was obvious they didn't meet standard health regulations but the food was really good regardless. A few blocks away I found a neighborhood with a fresh produce market around the corner. I chatted briefly with the store owner and bought a bag of peanuts, and then later on got some of my favorite yogurt. I find it very relaxing to explore spots like this that are away from the heavily populated areas of the city and it's always nice to chat with some of the friendly locals.
As my school year comes to an end, it becomes more and more apparent that I should be taking advantage of my time here while I still can. I feel as though I haven’t been going to enough places throughout the city, even though I’ve gone to most of the popular sites in Beijing. I went on another visit to the 798 Art District with one of my friends, as I had done the previous semester on a school trip, but this time we actually took the time to visit the art shows. Going through some of the galleries, I tried to compare what I was seeing with the artwork I had seen in larger Chinese museums and in art galleries back home in America. The local artwork was definitely more original and modern-styled, but there were some galleries where you could still see a lot of traditional Chinese cultural influence. One gallery was completely dedicated to Sun Wu Kong, or the monkey king, although this may have largely been due to this year changing to the year of the monkey. A distance away we found the Industrial Park, a place where you can imagine being in a Steam Punk themed attraction site. It looks abandoned but it still draws in a decent amount of people coming into the Art District.
Finally, towards the end of the month, I spent the day with my two Cuban friends I met the semester prior to go to a special kung fu event they invited me to. The trip was actually organized by a foreigners' Wechat group in Beijing called FCN, but people outside of the group were still welcome to join so long as they paid the event fee. I met them with several others at a nearby subway station, and from there we walked to the Beijing Shaolin Wushu School ( 北京少林武术学校 ) where event staff were waiting to greet us. This school was actually where the 2010 Karate Kid movie was filmed, and it was one with a really good reputation within the country. Once we walked into one of their main buildings, our FCN group leader gave us all shirts to put on so that we could stick together as a group. It turned out there were a lot of other foreigners visiting there as well, though from what other groups they came from was unclear to me.
In the main room where the event was being held, we saw flags from all over the world being hung from the ceiling, a stage to the front with a makeshift seating area for an audience, a boxing ring to the center, and in the far back, punching bags and floor mats for practice. After everyone was seated before the stage, the man who was in charge of the school stepped up onto the stage and began his introductions with an English interpreter and several cameramen taping him from the ground level. The beginning of the event started off a little awkward. Each expat group had representatives that were brought to the front of the audience for introductions, but some were only chosen on the spot. As a formality, the interpreter and another person from the school began to list off each of the representatives by name and native homeland, starting off with the phrase “A special guest from”. Hearing it repeated several times over the next few minutes quickly became annoying, especially since many of them were not really representatives, but rather visitors like everyone else in the room. I thought at first it was because the organization wanted to flaunt how many foreigners came to their event, but I also recalled that in large events such as this, Chinese people typically do long introductions. In China the guest always comes first and it is important to make them feel respected and to recognize their contributions.
Once the introductions were out of the way, that’s when the show really began. Students from the school began to appear on stage and pull off outstanding kung fu and weapons performances. Many of them were throwing themselves through the air effortlessly, doing flips and jumping over their peers as if they were on a trampoline. The amount of training they put in was obvious with how clear their stances were and with how quick they were able to snap their kicks and punches. Some of them performed with bo staffs, swords, and flags, and at a couple of points throughout the show they jumped through the air on springs attached to their legs. Their gold colored uniforms accentuated their performances against the bright red stage and cool lighting, and the traditional style music made everything more intense. Towards the end, we looked on as a young man split through a brick with his bare hand, and others who whipped needles through glass and bended poles with their throats. The performers allowed the audience to come up onto the stage and take photos with them after it was over. As people were getting their photos done, the head instructor came back on stage to greet some of the foreigners with his English interpreter at his side. Some of the school staff meanwhile was setting up a table towards the center of the stage, which would later be where the head instructor would demonstrate his calligraphy skills and allow others to give it a try for themselves. We were all getting hungry by this point, and so we took a small break to eat lunch that the school provided for us. There was a dining hall that resembled a school cafeteria that we all headed to together, with a select few chosen to go eat with the head instructor. Our meals were set on trays and we lined up for our lunches as you would in grade school. We were each given a bowl of rice, a fried chicken leg, beef and green peppers, eggs with tomatoes, water spinach, and some fruit. The variety was typical of a Chinese meal that you could see at home, and it made me miss eating dinner with my host family back in Suzhou.
Once the introductions were out of the way, that’s when the show really began. Students from the school began to appear on stage and pull off outstanding kung fu and weapons performances. Many of them were throwing themselves through the air effortlessly, doing flips and jumping over their peers as if they were on a trampoline. The amount of training they put in was obvious with how clear their stances were and with how quick they were able to snap their kicks and punches. Some of them performed with bo staffs, swords, and flags, and at a couple of points throughout the show they jumped through the air on springs attached to their legs. Their gold colored uniforms accentuated their performances against the bright red stage and cool lighting, and the traditional style music made everything more intense. Towards the end, we looked on as a young man split through a brick with his bare hand, and others who whipped needles through glass and bended poles with their throats. The performers allowed the audience to come up onto the stage and take photos with them after it was over. As people were getting their photos done, the head instructor came back on stage to greet some of the foreigners with his English interpreter at his side. Some of the school staff meanwhile was setting up a table towards the center of the stage, which would later be where the head instructor would demonstrate his calligraphy skills and allow others to give it a try for themselves. We were all getting hungry by this point, and so we took a small break to eat lunch that the school provided for us. There was a dining hall that resembled a school cafeteria that we all headed to together, with a select few chosen to go eat with the head instructor. Our meals were set on trays and we lined up for our lunches as you would in grade school. We were each given a bowl of rice, a fried chicken leg, beef and green peppers, eggs with tomatoes, water spinach, and some fruit. The variety was typical of a Chinese meal that you could see at home, and it made me miss eating dinner with my host family back in Suzhou.
After lunch, we had our choice of taking a short lesson on either shaolin kung fu, boxing, or MMA. I went over to take the shaolin kung fu class, but realized the basic skill set they were teaching was almost the same exact one that I had learned in my kung fu school. So, I went over to the MMA side where everyone was just chilling and practicing kicks and shortly after I came in, a lot of people started doing light sparring. I had been craving this all year, because in my kung fu class there isn’t any sparring and I miss it from my MMA classes back home. I wound up wrestling a little bit with a guy from Russia and then after the classes, we watched more advanced level students fight in the boxing ring. Many of them started off with kickboxing techniques and then pounced on any opportunities they could get to throw their opponents to the ground, grabbing at the knees or catching kicks. I was really envious. I wished at that moment I could have had the chance to spar with one of these guys with my old gear on and learn a thing or two from them, but it just wasn't meant to be. So as to cool down from the day’s activities, we all did tai chi together outside in the courtyard. Instructors kept an eye on all of the students’ performances, and those who showed the best form had the chance to earn a prize. It got hectic in the end because more people were told they had won than there were enough prizes, but I was lucky enough to get my hands on a dragon calligraphy painting that the head instructor had made earlier. After one final group photo, we said our goodbyes as I headed over to my regular kung fu class back at the park. This was one day that I think I’ll always be grateful to have experienced, because practicing martial arts in China is one of the most euphoric things you could possibly do in the country.
